Chinese P2P lending platform Dianrong today announced their Series D worth $220 million. This latest funding was led by GIC Private Limited, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, along with CMIG Leasing, Simone Investment Managers, and other institutional and individual investors.
The new proceeds will be used for improving risk management, R&D and automation, M&A opportunities and international expansion plans with local partners.
Soul Htite, founder and CEO of Dianrong, said, “The addition of these distinguished global investors not only validates our past successes but reinforces our commitment to ‘The New Finance,’ which applies fintech to deliver greater financial freedom to Chinese families and small businesses. This latest capital injection will help us expand and accelerate these efforts and further drive sustainable and profitable business growth.”
The current round added new ammunition to Dianrong, one of the most heavy-loaded fintech startups in China. In the most recent Series C round completed in 2015, Dianrong received $207 million from Standard Chartered Private Equity, China Fintech Fund, Tiger Global Management, etc. Investors of earlier rounds include Sun Hung Kai & Co. Limited, ZJ Capital, Northern Light.
The change in status of Dianrong’s investors shows that China’s internet finance industry, boasting a market size of $16 trillion as the world’s largest, is gaining more attention from the market. Starting from VCs and PEs in early rounds, Dianrong’s latest investors include banks, financial institutions and large investment institutions from public capital markets. The trend underlines that the huge potential of interest finance industry is alluring mainstream investors, Soul pointed out.
In response to inquires on IPO plans, Kevin Guo, founder and co-CEO of Dianrong answered that the current round has loaded the company with abundant cash, so they don’t have a specific IPO timetable for the time being.
Dianrong recently announced the acquisition of the asset-generation operations of Quark Finance, which tripled the company’s local footprint across China. Earlier this year, Dianrong also launched Chained Finance, the first-ever blockchain platform for supply-chain finance developed in partnership with FnConn, a subsidiary of Foxconn Technology Group.